Skin graft rejection in mice repopulated with marrow of the skin donor type: A SKn gene in a congenic line

Genetically anemic W/W ^c mice and lethally irradiated wild-type mice were cured and populated by grafted marrow cells from donor mice of three congenic lines that differed at non-H-2 histocompatibility loci. Tail skin from mice of the same congenic lines was grafted 3–4 weeks later. In two cases, the recipients behaved as expected, no longer rejecting skin syngeneic with the marrow graft that had repopulated them. However, B6-H-24 ^c skin was rejected by WBB6F₁-W/W mice that were cured with B6-H-24 ^c marrow showing a mean survival time of 9.9 weeks. It was rejected somewhat faster, with a mean survival time of 5.9 weeks, by W/W mice cured with marrow from other types of donors. Results were more variable in lethally irradiated WBB6F₁-+/+ recipients of B6-H-24 ^c marrow, but they also rejected B6-H-24 ^c skin. Both types of recipients remained chimeras after the skin was rejected, showing more than 90% of the B6-H-24 ^c hemoglobin type. This is the first report of a Skn gene in a congenic line.